1. Field
The present disclosure relates to network management. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a method and system for distributed management of layer-2 address table entries.
2. Related Art
The growth of the Internet has brought with it an increasing demand for bandwidth. As a result, equipment vendors race to build larger and faster networks with large number of switches, each capable of supporting a large number of end devices, to move more traffic efficiently. However, managing the forwarding entries associated with these end devices becomes complex when the forwarding information is distributed across the switches. Particularly, due to distributed forwarding table updates, it is essential to maintain consistency across a network.
Meanwhile, layer-2 (e.g., Ethernet) switching technologies continue to evolve. More routing-like functionalities, which have traditionally been the characteristics of layer-3 (e.g., Internet Protocol or IP) networks, are migrating into layer-2. Notably, the recent development of the Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) protocol allows Ethernet switches to function more like routing devices. TRILL overcomes the inherent inefficiency of the conventional spanning tree protocol, which forces layer-2 switches to be coupled in a logical spanning-tree topology to avoid looping. TRILL allows routing bridges (RBridges) to be coupled in an arbitrary topology without the risk of looping by implementing routing functions in switches and including a hop count in the TRILL header.
While TRILL brings many desirable features to layer-2 networks, some issues remain unsolved when a distributed yet consistent mechanism to clear entries from a layer-2 address table is desired.